Washington, D.C. -- Friends of the Earth’s president, Erich Pica, had the following response to an Associated Press report that President Obama has fired Elizabeth Birnbaum, the head of the U.S. Minerals Management Service:

“This is a scapegoat firing, not the deep-seated reform that’s needed. Ms. Birnbaum inherited an agency crippled by a culture of collusion with the oil industry that permeated at all levels. A drastic overhaul of not just MMS, but the Department of the Interior is needed to make sure that the catastrophic regulatory failures that fueled the Gulf Drilling Disaster are not repeated. President Obama and Secretary Salazar need to commit to more than superficial actions to truly root out Big Oil’s influence in government.”

### Friends of the Earth and our network of grassroots groups in 77 countries fight to create a more healthy, just world. Our current campaigns focus on clean energy and solutions to global warming, protecting people from toxic and new, potentially harmful technologies, and promoting smarter, low-pollution transportation alternatives.